Aftermarket power boosting devices have been commercially available to owners of various vehicles to increase the horsepower and/or torque output of their engines. These non-stock devices may alter engine intake-and-exhaust flow, increase fuel delivery, change fuel injection timing, and/or modify transmission shifting settings to achieve enhanced performance.
The typical electronic-based power enhancement devices have a rudimentary user interface. Most employ a multi-position knob that enables the user to rotate the knob to indicate a number of operating level settings. This user interface is independent of any gauges or other user feedback devices that may provide vital engine operating measurements such as exhaust gas temperature. In operation, the user would visually perceive the vehicle's performance condition by monitoring one or more gauges and manually adjust the power enhancement device setting by changing the knob position.
A newer type of electronic-based power enhancement device has been commercially available recently that may be connected to an LCD-based user display and interface that improves the user control within the device. This provides a display of certain engine parameters and receives user input of certain configuration setting that are used by the power enhancement device internally in its computations. For example, the user may enter a maximum exhaust gas temperature. When the engine approaches the user-defined maximum exhaust gas temperature setting, a percentage of defueling or change in fuel injection timing takes place to back down the engine power. The percentage is computed by the power enhancement device. The power enhancement device may consult tables or maps stored in its memory to determine the percentage of defueling or change in injection timing. These existing user interface devices do not receive any vehicle operating condition parameters independent of the power enhancement device and do not perform any computation or analysis on these data other than to display them.